Orange Linckia 911 Please

[Mare100]

Help please for a VERY frustrated new reefer.

I recently purchased some coral frags and an Orange Linckia starfish from Saltwaterfish.com. The package arrived Friday and everything looked pretty good....but the starfish looked a little "frazzled"...I assumed from the trip. I acclimated him according to directions and added him to the tank. I did notice at this time that there were little orange "bits" in the bag he came in....almost like he shed tiny pieces. I just attributed this to stress from shipping.

When I put him in the tank....he wandered off and was doing great! As of this morning.....he's not looking too hot. He was under a rock...all twisted up. I got him and put him in an isolation area...and he just looks.....well....."mottled" for lack of a better word.

Now....I've read at different places that these animals have a VERY low survival rate??? At Saltwaterfish.com....it said that the care level was EASY and these stars are a MUST HAVE for any reef tank. What gives? Did I get something I shouldn't have?

I'm sorry...I don't have hours and hours to research all the different contradicting opinions I find when I DO try to research an animal. It's VERY frustrating.

Anyway....sorry for the rant....but can anybody give ideas on what to do for this guy? All of our water parameters are good on the reef tank (everything is where it should be). I have a bottle of "Malafix" here.....but don't know how to dose in the little cup he is in. I have a 10 gal QT set up.....but it is very clean and he wouldn't have much to eat.

Help please......??

M

 

[papagimp]

The care for them is easy, the ability to give them the proper foods they need is difficult though. Most linkia's and fromia's have "assumptions" as to what they eat, but not alot of research to back anything up, so it's hit or miss with alot of them. An older mature tank is definatly a must in order to better provide the appropriate types of algae/sponge/or whatever else they may eat. I think your best bet would be to either take him back, or wait patiently and hope for the best. Starfish in general can be extremely sensitive to transport or relocation, so it may just take him some time to adjust to his new home. Hope he pulls through for ya!

 

[Mare100]

Thanks Papa....

We have him acclimating to the QT now. All we can do is try. If he doesn't make it.....Saltwaterfish.com is going to get a good piece of my mind. I'm very frustrated and I HATE losing guys.

M

 

[papagimp]

Little inside info I'll share with ya, if you go stictly off what the retialers and whatnot tell you about the fish, you are going to end up with alot of livestock that is either incompatible or not reef safe and even impossible to keep. Most retailers are in the business only to make money, not all, but alot. They will say whatever they have to in order to sell the livestock they get in. And some just don't have the necessary knowlegde or experience to make claims like a linkia is an easy to care for species. Always get more than one source of information, apart from retailers or local stores. Ask here on Reefcentral or other forums and talk to fellow reefers. Hands on experience speaks to me alot more than reading something in a book or on an online retailers website. There so many fish and corals in the ocean that even experts couldn't tell you what they eat or how to care for them, just from lack of research in this field. Better to be a paranoid purchaser.

 

[Mare100]

Thanks for the help and support, Papa..

Unfortunately, this was a sad lesson learned. What makes me mad is that this is the 2nd time I was told that something would be "easy to care for and great for the tank" and it ended up in the animal not lasting more than 3 days.

Strange.....I'm usually not this gullable! I will definitely be much more careful (and patient when it comes to adding fish/corals/inverts to the tank). It's very hard when you see something that is so beautiful....and you just want to have it.

Anyway.....the star did not make it. What's left of him will be returned to SaltwaterFish.com. What a terrible shame.

M

 

[spoiledcats]

This is a great place to get info on what you should and shouldn't have in your tank. I've had several linckias, and the longest any one of them lasted was 2 years. I don't think I'll get another starfish. They are beautiful and hard to resist, but very difficult to keep alive for any length of time. We just don't know enough about what they eat. And papagimp gives you good advice about not relying on what retailers say. There is one website that will tell you you can keep tangs in 50 gallon tanks. My advice would be to check here before you purchase any livestock. There are people who have tried just about everything here.

 

[Mare100]

That's so sad.....and you are right, they ARE beautiful and very hard to resist. We have 2 sea serpants who have been doing very well....but we never see them. They spend all their time in the rock. Well....as long as they are eating and doing well....that's what matters.

I definitely will post here for advice before adding anything to the tanks. Sometimes I feel like a pain asking so many questions....but so far everybody has been so very helpful.

Would that be Lehigh Valley, PA you are from? I'm originally from PA......Reading.

M

 

[ebauman75]

One other thing you may want to do is see if you can find a LFS that you KNOW is going to tell you the truth. I'll admit it's not easy to find, and sometimes it's just a matter of finding the right person at the LFS to ask questions. When I was trying to figure out what equipment I needed to get my tank up and running & make sure that I was getting a good selection of fish that are reef safe, colorful, and compatible I found a few people at my LFS who obviously want the sale but want to make sure I keep coming back so they didn't just tell me what I wanted to hear or whatever it took to make the sale. They actually give a damn about the customers and the livestock!
Not easy to find, but once you find them you're set!
The guys here are breeders of many things and one worked at the Shedd Aquarium for years in quarantining (?) so I'm pretty confident that when they give me a thumbs up or down I'm relatively safe!

 

[papagimp]

I agree with ebauman's comment, dont' neccessarily get mad at the "store" but the emplyee that told you wrong. I've got one dude at a LFS that has been trying for a year to talk me into all sorts of "large" angels and tangs for my 55g and then I have a guy at another LFS that refused to sell my mother a mandarin until her tank was at least 6 months old. Didn't advice her not to buy it, refused to sell it. Even though she didn't get the fish she wanted she was very impressed that the dude was willing to look out for the customers best intersted and the livstocks as well.

And for a little personal experience here as well, dont' just read one book and make up your mind either, read several sources on the same fish. That's how I got dupted into my dominoe damsel, the book I read said "perfectly reef safe, good community fish, not as aggressive as other damsels". I don't know what kind of dominoe damsel they had, maybe one with massive brain damage or something, but mine is straight from the pits of hell!

 

[Mare100]

Well....in all honesty, so far every fish we got from our LFS is thriving. I do feel very comfortable with them and they are the type that will be very honest about what you should put in your tank or not. They have helped us greatly in getting both our tanks up and running.

I guess that's another lesson learned for me. Our LFS doesn't stock a whole lot of the exotic fancy fish that you can be enticed by on-line. They said though that they can get us pretty much anything we want (when we are ready). I guess I shouldn't be so easily swayed by a fancy place that offers so many different things.

Mare

 

[spoiledcats]

Yes, I'm in Lehigh Valley, Pa. I guess if you lived in Reading, you've probably been to That Fish Place. I got my hippo tang from there, and he's been fat and happy in my tank for many years. Also, can't beat their prices for supplies.

 

[papagimp]

I utterly HATE That Fish Place. But mine may have been a special circumstance, since I hear so many good things from other reefers. I'll just let you guys give em your money cause i sure won't . They do get good prices though, wish they hadn't screwed me so i could spend more on the good deals I always see.

Mare100, every LFS I have been to has made that same claim. "we can get you wantever you want" and so far none have lived up to it. I've asked for special ordered from each store here locally and none have come through ever for me. If you ask for something special, make darn sure they know your seriouse about it.

And from my personal experience, when you get a fish and several months later it's still thriving, that's your system causing it to thrive, not the source of the fish. I buy alot of crappy half dead coral frags from some stores here cause there obvously dying and I'll get a good deal on the remainder of it, and so far to date, I've helped about 50 different corals recover and then sell em back to somebody.

 

[Mare100]

Yep......

Been to "That Fish Place". In fact....we were in PA visiting a few weeks ago and I took hubby down to see it. I must admit though.....I wasn't as happy with the place as I was when I visited there before. Yes...their prices were pretty good on some things......but I wasn't too impressed with their fish room. Maybe I hit it at a bad time...but I saw several guys that didn't look too good and even a dead fish or two. That turns me against a place right off the bat. I know it happens to the best of them.....but it doesn't look good. Their corals didn't look too bad though. Didn't buy any livestock though because of just visiting from MA.

Papa, I haven't tried any "special order" fish from the LFS yet. I'm not ready for that yet. And I certainly haven't been brave enough to try to take on any frags or corals that didn't look too good. Heck, sometimes I have a hard enough time keeping things alive that looked good and healthy when I got them...

Mare

 

[1F2FRFBF]

Mare, I'm sorry to hear about your starfish experience - I'm just getting started myself and have seen a lot of beautiful critters that I might like to add to the tank someday, but then when I come home and do some reading I find out that there are a lot of conflicting reports on the care and viability. It really is confusing, but it helps to come here and read what people's first-hand experiences have been. There are some things it's just not going to be feasible for me to keep so early on in the game, or with the size of the tank I have.

As far as "That Fish Place" goes, I got just about all of my basic equipment there. It was a bit of a haul from NJ but for what I saved, it was worth it. Their livestock section does leave a lot to be desired, though. It's just like you said - lots of unhappy-looking fish, and the corals are just dismal. There's no way I would make any livestock purchases there.